Alleged White House correspondents' dinner suspect took photo before attack: Feds
The Justice Department released more images of alleged White House correspondents' dinner attack suspect Cole Allen just moments before the attack, and also laid out his alleged pre-attack plans in a new court filing on Wednesday.
Investigators said that Allen was observed by agents at the security checkpoint in the Washington Hilton "fire the shotgun in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom."
The court filing also gives the clearest description yet of what happened in the seconds during Allen's alleged charging of the room.
"The USSS officer and others at the checkpoint heard the gunshot," according to the court filing. "The USSS officer drew his service weapon and fired five times at the defendant. The defendant fell to the ground, was restrained by law enforcement, and was placed under arrest."
Allen also allegedly wrote his assessments of the hotel's security when he arrived at the Hilton.
"He wrote that he 'walk[ed] in with multiple weapons and not a single person there [at the hotel] considers the possibility that I could be a threat,'" the court filing said.
According to the court filing, the defendant went on to complain that, "if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce2 in here and no one would have noticed s---."
Authorities also outlined in further detail Allen's alleged pre-attack plans, saying that it was something that was planned out before he arrived in Washington.
He allegedly searched for the White House correspondents' dinner and events leading up to it. He booked his room for the Washington Hilton in early April, authorities said.
"The defendant also kept a running note on his phone of his observations and thoughts during his cross-country train journey," according to the filing.
During the day of the dinner, Allen allegedly left his room multiple times and at points accessed a webpage that tracks the president's schedule, the filing said.
Before he left his hotel room to allegedly carry out the attack, Allen took a photo of himself strapped up with his arsenal. The photo, included in the court filing, shows him with a black shirt, red tie and knives and weapons attached to his person and in his bag.
He then allegedly visited the presidential schedule tracking page minutes before the attack, and attempted to watch the president's arrival at the dinner. He also sent his email outlining his plans, and then allegedly carried out his attack, according to the filing.
Authorities also say in the filing, that when they searched his room at the Hilton, they found two additional knives, a magazine with 10 rounds of ammunition, two boxes each containing 10 rounds of shotgun ammunition, a half-facepiece respirator, a roll of duct tape and two rolls of grip tape.
In Allen's bedroom in Torrance, California, law enforcement recovered two long gun bags, a Mossberg buttstock, a pistol holster, a training pistol, and shotgun ammunition, along with several electronic devices, the filing said.
Allen is scheduled to be in court Thursday.
